Reconstructing Past Variations in Erosion and Sediment Transport using Uranium-Series Isotopes

Uranium-series (U-series) isotopes are fractionated in soils, sediments and natural waters by erosion and weathering processes. Recent applications of U-series isotopes to sedimentary deposits have enabled the landscape response to glacial-interglacial climate change to be studied. This thesis focuses on the developing comminution dating (or the comminution age) technique that utilises U isotopes to constrain the time elapsed since mineral grains were reduced to ca. <63μm in size. Applied to hillslope and fluvial systems, the comminution age represents the sediment residence time, and applied to sedimentary deposits of known depositional age, the palaeo sediment residence time can be constrained.